Cannot start windows service (.Net Core worker service) due to extra extension methods on IHostBuilder

Question

Goal: I'm trying to run a .Net Core 3.1 Worker service as a windows service.

Setup: I've used the Worker service default template via Visual Studio.

To add windows service functionality to this, I installed the Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.WindowsServices nuget and thereafter added .UseWindowsService() as follows:

public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
            Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
                .UseWindowsService()
                .ConfigureServices((hostContext, services) =>
                {
                    services.AddHostedService<Worker>();
                })
                ;

Thereafter, the service can be successfully started via:

sc create <WorkerSvcName> binPath=<C:/local/path/to/exe>
sc start <WorkerSvcName>

Problem: However, I need to use further extension methods on IHostBuilder, like for example ..UseSerilog(). When I do so, in addition to the above setup, I always get:

[SC] StartService FAILED 1053:

The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

What I've tried: This persists for all the following configurations:

public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
            Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
                X
                .ConfigureServices((hostContext, services) =>
                {
                    services.AddHostedService<Worker>();
                })
                X
                .UseWindowsService()
                X

as well as:

public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
            Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
                X
                .UseWindowsService()
                X
                .ConfigureServices((hostContext, services) =>
                {
                    services.AddHostedService<Worker>();
                })
                X
                ;

where X is a custom extension method on IHostBuilder:

public static IHostBuilder UseSerilog(this IHostBuilder builder)
    {
        if (builder == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(builder));
        }

        builder.UseSerilog((context, services, configuration) =>
        {
           //do stuff


            configuration
                .ReadFrom.Configuration(config)
                .ReadFrom.Services(services)
                
        });
        Log.Information("Serilog has been configured");

        return builder;
    }

The alternative placements above tell me this may not have anything to do with the order of configuration in CreateHostBuilder().

Question: Any ideas on why I cannot use any other extension methods and continue running the windows service?

Answer 1

This turned out to be a glorious waste of time, since I was looking in exactly the wrong place for quite a while. But it did point out a neat way to get logs from a failing windows service.

My Serilog section in appsettings.json looked like:

  "Serilog": {
    "Using": [
      "Serilog.Sinks.Console",
      "Serilog.Sinks.File",
      "Serilog.Sinks.Async",
      "Serilog.Sinks.Elasticsearch",
      "Serilog.Sinks.ApplicationInsights",
      "Serilog.Sinks.NewRelic.Logs"
    ],
    "MinimumLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Override": {
        "Microsoft": "Warning",
        "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information"
      }
    },
    "WriteTo": [
      {
        "Name": "Console",
        "Args": {
          .....
      },
      {
        "Name": "Async",
        "Args": {
          "configure": [
            {
              "Name": "File",
              ..........
        }
      },
      {
        "Name": "Elasticsearch",
        "Args": {
          .......
        }
      },
      {
        "Name": "ApplicationInsights",
        "Args": {
          .......
        }
      },
      {
        "Name": "NewRelicLogs",
        "Args": {
          "applicationName": "<val>",
          "licenseKey": "<val>" <-----------------THIS LINE WAS MISSING!!!!!!!
        }
      }
    ]

There was indeed a log about this- it just was not in the windows service console window or the console opened up via Visual Studio's IIS Express profile.

To seek logs for failing windows services, try this approach:

1. Publish the app via Visual Studio to a local folder.
2. Go the aforementioned folder via command prompt and run .exe in order to execute the application

The resulting logs saved the day for me. Not sure why these do not appear on the console when running in either Debug or Release mode.